‘Havisham’ essay – concluding lines
The concluding lines of a poem can often be extremely effective in aiding our understanding of a poem as a whole. This is certainly true of the poem “Havisham” by Carol Ann Duffy where i feel the final lines effectively highlight the complexity of the character we are dealing with in the poem. This complex character helps us appreciate the dangers of obsession and the inability to move on in life as well as the strange proximity of love and hate.
Miss Havisham was jilted on her wedding day at 8:40AM, causing her entire life to come to a halt – this is indicated by the fact that all the clocks in the house are stuck at 8:40. This confusing character refuses to even change out of her wedding dress, leaving herself and the dress to decay together.
The concluding lines of “Havisham” are: “give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon/it’s not only the heart that b-b-b breaks.” Clearly, these lines portray a strange mix of violence and distress and we are simultaneously appalled and repelled by Havisham whilst also feeling a pang of sympathy for her. This ambivalence we feel towards her is a feature of the poem as a whole, and the poet has employed a number of techniques to create this.
The poem begins on a strange oxymoron – “beloved sweetheart bastard”, introducing us to the mystery that is, Havisham. Two words associated with love are juxtaposed with the brutal insult “bastard.” Duffy uses this oxymoron to highlight the strange proximity of love and hate – one of the central concerns of the poem. It gives us an insight on Havisham’s mental state, it shows she cannot decide whether she loves or hates her ex. We begin to prepare ourselves for the confusion we are going to feel towards Havisham throughout the poem.
The confusion continues at the end of stanza 2 through Duffy’s use of enjambement, when Havisham asks: “Who did this/to me?” Using enjambement makes the question sound drawn out and desperate. We begin to think when we read the question – who did do this to her? Should we feel sympathy for Havisham and blame her ex, or lay the blame at her door? Confusion is now transferred onto the reader. However if we disregard the enjambement, Havisham appears to take the blame herself as she says “her, myself, who did this.” The change from 3rd to 1st person pronouns suggests Havisham doesn’t recognise herself in the mirror, and takes a pause before she acknowledges the reflection as her own. Duffy employs enjambement once again to illustrate Havisham’s confusion, with the oxymoron “Love’s/hate.” This highlights the strange proximity of love and hate just as the opening line does. It reminds us of Havisham’s ambivalence towards her former fiancé.
Duffy shows us the sinister side to Havisham throughout the entire poem. The poet gives us a look into Havisham’s mind when she says “not a day since then I haven’t wished him dead.” We are shocked by this, even more so when she says she has “prayed for it.” She even says she has “ropes on the back of [her] hands [she] could strangle with” – telling us she thinks about carrying out the murder of her former lover herself. This demonstrates the dangers of obsession as it shows us that is can drive a person to the point where they could kill.
Duffy uses some sinister imagery when she mentions Havisham’s “dark green pebbles for eyes.” The dark green could represent an intense feeling of jealousy – perhaps to the woman her ex is now with or to those who have succeeded in love. The pebbles represent the hardening of her feelings and emotions, hence her bitter thoughts. We return to Havisham’s wishes to cause her ex harm in the third stanza, where her erotic dreams come to an end whence “bite[s] awake.” Her obscene desire to emasculate her ex appals us. She wants to make him useless to any other woman.
Despite all of the sinister moments, there are still moments of sympathy we feel for Havisham – making us even more unsure of our feelings towards her. The second stanza in particular makes us feel sorry for Havisham. It becomes clear Havisham has lost all self respect as she “stink[s] and remember[s].” She has let go and we feel sorry for her as she leaves herself to decay along with her surroundings. The yellowing of her wedding dress reminds us how much she has already decayed and how long she has been there. Havisham’s anguished “cawing of nooooo at the wall” reveals her loneliness, she has no one to listen to her or to be there for her. This arouses the feeling of sympathy in the reader as this helpless woman has no one to relate to her suffering. However, these moments strengthen our ambivalence towards her, as we have just witnessed the sinister side of Havisham that horrifies us, but have now been presented with moments that make us feel sympathy for her.
The final stanza captures the psychotic Havisham at her spiteful best. The “red balloon bursting in my face” is an interesting metaphor as red can often be associated with love, it can also signify danger. It may be signifying the danger of emotionally investing yourself completely in one person, and when the balloon bursts you are left with nothing. Duffy then uses some stark word choice with the words “bang” and “stabbed.” Finally bringing us to the concluding lines, the first of which containing the most disturbing image of the poem, Havisham asks for a “male corpse for a long slow honeymoon.” We now realise that her hatred is of all men now, and there are unpleasant undertones of torture and the enjoyment of it. We are shocked by her once again. Somehow, the very last line manages to make us feel sympathy again as Havisham tells us not to “think it’s only the heart that b-b-b breaks.” We get an image of a broken woman. The repeated ‘b’ could represent sobbing and emphasises her distress. The contrast between these last lines reflects the ambiguous picture that is built of this complex character and we are never sure how to feel towards her, just as she is never sure how she feels towards her ex.
In conclusion, the concluding lines of “Havisham” by Carol Ann Duffy worked effectively in summing up the confusing nature of the character. There are great contrasts in emotion in the poem, and that is represented in the contrast between the last 2 lines.
